Director, Program Operations at African Wildlife Foundation

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership

• Lead the review , implementation, and adoption of AWF’s project management methodology, tools, Standard Operating Procedures and expectations.
• Set clear, measurable goals with staff that relate to program implementation and review progress against goals on a regular basis.
• Demonstrate an open, collaborative, and supporting management style, with an emphasis on empowering and advancing field-based staff within the organization.
• Direct operations of team by building functional excellence and fostering meaningful career development

Mentor and Coach new program managers, hires and other staff

• Help to create an inviting, appreciative and cohesive team experience.
• Ensure AWF’s vision is well understood by the project teams
• Provide expert input into and deliver creative solutions to improve AWF’s unique culture
• Promote a culture of accountability, urgency in delivery and quality of work using the established RACI
• Champion a high-performing team

Program Implementation

• Oversee programs in Africa ensuring conservation impact, compliance with donor regulations and effective communication with other AWF departments including finance, marketing, media, development and program design.
• Oversee effective and relevant program inception meetings, and planning exercises for programs in Africa.
• With landscape and country coordinators and directors, coordinate development of project plans. Ensure that plans are consistent with donor expectations, including appropriate reporting and check points, and are realistic and sufficiently detailed to be actionable by implementing staff.
• Ensure that program managers are utilizing the project management system. Meet with program managers regularly to review implementation status. In cases of program delays, analyze impacts from a financial and conservation standpoint and recommend an adaptive management course.
• Coordinate interventions with other technical leads to problem-solve and adjust planning accordingly.
• Regularly question programmatic assumptions, plans and pace to ensure that AWF remains on a good course considering changing operational realities. Encourage similar good-natured analysis throughout the organization.
• Ensure that all grant terms, conditions, rules and regulations are being adhered to by AWF and all sub-awardees.
• Contribute to the development of conservation project plans and budgets, advising on what is achievable given time, budgets, and operations. Ensure that requirements for proposal development (log-frames, technical design, and other inputs) are high quality and provided to the relevant fundraising team timely.

Management systems, procedures and reporting

• Maintain and improve project management systems that facilitate program planning and ongoing management.
• Build, maintain and improve systems for collecting programmatic means of verification (MOVs). Establish and enforce approval workflows to ensure adequacy and completeness of MOVs.
• Develop and deliver standard programmatic reporting to cover implementation status and SOP compliance. Provide SVP-CSLI with summary level reports on a weekly basis in advance of program review meetings.
• Ensure timely and high-quality programmatic reporting and conservation outputs from landscape teams to improve AWF’s long-term donor satisfaction.
• Provide quarterly reports summarizing the overall project implementation status.
• Evaluate the challenges faced by the Field team and act to mitigate risks and develop opportunities
• Establish relationships/partnerships with relevant local NGOs, private sector and wildlife agencies in target geographies.
• Represent AWF at forums, conferences and meetings

Classroom Africa

• Oversee the implementation of AWF’s Classroom Africa (CA) program, and expansion of the program to include conservation education.
• Develop strategies to build the Classroom Africa brand, and expand funding and geographic footprint.
• Lead on selection of new school sites, relationship management with education ministries, and the Classroom Africa board.
• Ensure exceptionally high standards for construction and maintenance of schools and associated programs.
• Develop Classroom Africa team to work more independently over time.

Qualifications

• Master or Bachelor’s  degree   in   ecology, conservation, project management, sustainable development, or related Advanced degree preferred.
• At least 10 years’ experience managing large field-based conservation and sustainable development grants with annual budgets in excess of US$1 million
• Strong basis in general management theory with real-world experience in managing and motivating large
• Demonstrated ability to lead professional teams
• Ability to think strategically, anticipate future consequences and trends, and incorporate them into the organizational Willingness to question the status quo.
• Decisive, with a high level of business acumen and the ability to balance the delivery of programs against the realities of a
• Strong project management experience
• High level of emotional intelligence
• Results based orientation
• Personable, with the ability to get the best from a team without unnecessary interpersonal conflict or
• Ability and willingness to travel sometimes to  very remote and sometimes physically challenging locations
• Fluency in English and French